Jaguars' unexpected action leads to showdown with city over contract

The Jacksonville Jaguars have unilaterally decided they want to keep SMG running EverBank Field and other city entertainment facilities, setting up a legal fight with the city.

According to the contract between City Hall and the football team, the two entities are supposed to jointly decide who runs the stadium.

After two companies - SMG and Global Spectrum - submitted facility management proposals last week, the city's chief financial officer and deputy chief administrative officer were supposed to sit down with the Jaguars team president and rank the responses.

That ranking would then have gone to a procurement committee, which would make a recommendation to Mayor Alvin Brown.

The mayor and the team then must mutually agree on the selection.

But team President Mark Lamping did not show up to the one meeting of the subcommittee held last week. Instead, he sent the city a letter Thursday formally notifying the city that SMG was its choice.

The two sides haven't talked about the selection, surprising city General Counsel Cindy Laquidara.

"A joint selection requires people at a minimum to converse," she said.

Laquidara immediately sent the team a letter charging it with defaulting on its contract.

Under the contract, that starts the clock running on a 45-day period during which the situation can be rectified.

Laquidara said Friday she would have to have conversations with the team to decide exactly how the situation could be fixed.

"We were excited by the depths to which the Jaguars could discuss this," she said. "We were looking forward to a clarifying discussion."

A Jaguars spokesman did not return a phone message and email sent Friday evening.

The Jaguars did not explain in the letter why they went with SMG but did say that doing so would save the city more than $1 million a year.

The bids are not yet public, so that figure cannot be verified.

SMG has managed the city's facilities since 1992, with the current contract signed in 1995.

Over that period, SMG has paid that group that helped get the Jaguars here - a group whose officers are listed in state records as David Seldin, Jack Demetree, Tom Petway and Lawrence Dubow - about $130,000 a year, a deal which ends if the contract does. Those men are no longer associated with the Jaguars ownership.

The contract was not bid out during the 20-year period, during which it was renewed four times.

Most recently, SMG has received about $1 million a year in fees for running places like the football stadium and Veterans Memorial Arena. The city has also subsidized the various venues at a cost just under $10 million.

The Jaguars' decision to keep SMG reflected the company's cost-cutting approach in its bid, said SMG spokesman Michael Munz. "I think it's clear that they recognize the significant savings SMG offers the city."

The letter surprised Global Spectrum, the other company in the running for the contract.

"We weren't aware that the Jaguars were doing this," Todd Glickman, senior vice president of business development. "As far as we're concerned, we're still in the process. We were looking forward to coming down and presenting to the city and the Jaguars."

The facilities management contract selection process has generated its own share of controversy in recent days, even before the Jaguars' letter became public.

The Jacksonville City Council has pushed back against having the mayor as the final city decision maker on the contract, in part out of concern he might be too close to Global Spectrum.

Brown has a long-standing friendship with William Gray III and Justin Gray, both of whom have lobbied for Comcast, the parent company of Global Spectrum. Over the past five years, one of William Gray's companies earned $4.5 million from the Comcast contract, according to federal lobbying records.

William Gray was the keynote speaker at the Mayor Brown Interfaith Celebration, spending part of his time praising the mayor. "You have chosen wisely in selecting this young man to lead you," he said about Brown, who had worked for Gray on the Bush-Clinton Katrina Interfaith Fund.

In November, Justin Gray met with Chief Financial Officer Ronnie Belton and toured City Hall with the mayor.

Brown said he's never spoken to the men about the facilities management deal.

SMG, on the other hand, is known as a politically well-connected company. As well as its connections with the group that brought the team here, it shares local powerhouse lobbyist Paul Harden with the Jaguars.

Timothy Gibbons: (904) 359-4103

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